Decency Filter:Clearplay, RCA and WalMart are working together to clean up the movies you watch. This is an interesting circumvention of the problems Hollywood has been suing Clearplay for. [via /.]

Obviously nobody is forcing anybody to watch movies this way, but I'd love your thoughts on the subject (though I don't think anybody is interested in seeing another round of WalMart slamming). What I find most interesting is RCA, rarely a competitor in tech these days finding a new in to consumer hearts and homes.

What isn't clearly stated is just how this device 'censors' stuff: skips scenes? Black blocks or mosaic'd filter over the naughty parts, a la censored japanese porn? Muted sound and a blue screen with "SCENE MISSING", or "COVER YOUR EARS AND CLOSE YOUR EYES FOR THE NEXT 2 MINS" in it?
There's just one thing I'd like to know: who the @#*&? let the Onion writers start scripting this Dickensian (as in Philip K.) reality we've been living in for the past, say, 4 years?
posted 13 years ago
by Flagpole

The way I imagine it to work is that the player has a database of DVD titles that works essentially as a playlist. Something like this:
01:00:00:01 Play
01:05:10:30 Bleep
01:24:23:12 Skip
01:28:23:29 Resume
...
Further, you should be able to download new titles through the player in Tivo fashion.
So I kind of imagine a generation of young Mormon* boys scouring the video store for T&A titles not on the list...
The thing that bothers me is that it seems like such a cheap and easy way to avoid the moral question involved in watching these movies and escape into a fantastists delusion that swear words don't exist and sex is never mentioned.
*Cuz the company is from SLC. Fundies can have fun with it too, I suppose.
posted 13 years ago
by shotsy

Maybe an inappropriate response, but every time I read something like this I feel glad I'm not American.
(Then I remember porn is basically illegal in this country, and that every thing I do is monitored and recorded, and thats when the crying starts.)
posted 13 years ago
by dng

Erm, dng, for all intents and purposes us yanks are there too.
posted 13 years ago
by shinything

Welcome to the free market, where we can steal music, alter artistic works to suit our personal beliefs and include editing as a form of personal expression.
If you're gonna' embrace libertarianism, make sure you slip it the tongue.
posted 13 years ago
by anonymous

Hey, dng, at least you still get naughty magazines in shops and Page Three girls. I was agog the first time I stepped into a UK bookshop.
posted 13 years ago
by Alnedra